The Nightmare Ends
by Celestial Dragon in flight
Summary: While waiting for his father's ship to dock, Ralph thinks back over events that occured after being rescued.


Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Lord of the flies. They were all created by William Golding

The Nightmare Ends

As the carrier pulled into the dock, I began to feel anxious. This will be the first chance I have had to see my father since before my time on the island.

I can barely go anywhere without someone pointing me out. We were all over the news once the truth got out. There were tons of interviews and photos that I didn't even want.

I remembered we all agreed, as Jack handed me Piggy's glasses, that we must never tell the adults what really happened here. The only thing is, we forgot to include the littluns as part of everyone, since we've been excluding them from the get go.

It was actually Wilfred, whom had still been tied up when the adults reached Jack's camp, who spilled the beans. Can't say I blame him, he was like that for, what? Two days?

As I thought about our last day on the island, I watched the people start to pour out of the warship. I didn't even realize I'd started moving until I felt a hand on my shoulder. I backed up as I spun around, only to relax when I saw that it was my mother, with her golden hair and warm brown eyes.

As I hugged her, I felt the scar in my side tug at the skin around it. I couldn't say that I really cared how much I was acting like a littlun. I had believed I would never see her again because I thought I'd never get off the island. But Simon had been right and I made it back.

I felt tears roll down my face as I thought about Simon and Piggy.

My mind moved back to the event of stepping off the cruiser and onto dry land. Many people turned up, from regular people, to news reporters to parents. Once we had told what plane we had crashed in, it was easy to identify who needed to know that their children had been found.

There were also police cars there. After the older boys were allowed to speak with their parents, they were taken into custody. Last I've heard, they were all sent to juvenile detention centers, with the exception of Jack and Roger, who were tried as adults and will be spending a long time in prison.

As I scanned the crowd, my eyes caught on a figure standing alone. It was a woman, probably in her late forties or early fifties. She was chubby and had hair like… oh god.

I walked over to her, even though I really didn't want to. As I approached, I said "Hello. I'm Ralph, Can I help you?" Maybe I was wrong; maybe she wasn't who I thought she was.

"I'm looking for my nephew, Gerald."

"Gerald?" It was only at that moment that I realized I had never actually known Piggy's real name.

"Yes, he wears glasses and has asthmar." She said. "He wasn't taken with those other boys, was he? He couldn't have done anything wrong. The boy would never hurt a fly."

For a moment, I couldn't find my voice but when I did, all that came out was "no ma'am."

"Where is he? Will he be coming off soon, I'm so worried, he has such a hard time with his asthmar."

"He won't be coming off." Why did I have to say it like that?

She looked at me for a moment as I tucked my hands into the pockets of the two sizes too large pants I was wearing. They had been given to me on the ship.

"We were friends." I stated in an emotionless tone. "If it weren't for him, I don't know what would've happened to me." My voice cracked as I finished the statement.

I brought my hands out of my pockets and held out my right to her. In it was Pi… Gerald's specs.

Tears rolled down the woman's face as she took the glasses from me and looked them over.

"Gerald died fighting for what he believed in. He was a great man."

I don't really remember much of what happened after that. I can't help but feel that he was the only person on the island worthy of being called a man. The rest of us behaved like children or animals.

It was a few hours later that Mom found me, in which time I had been bombarded with thousands of questions and blinded by the flashes of innumerable cameras. After being away from people for so long, it was difficult to handle all the stuff that was going on around me.

For the next few weeks, the story of the boys rescued from the island was all over the news. My face was one of the most common to appear in the newspapers and on the TV.

I snapped out of my reverie as a familiar figure stepped off of the ship. "Dad!" I yelled as I waved to get his attention.

He waved back and walked over to us.

And, sucks to my dignity, I ran up and hugged him too.


End file.
